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Iran, Germany, and Britan to Decide on Fate of Salt Men Iran

Submitted by coldrum on Wednesday, 25 July 2007  Page Views: 2913

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Country: Iran In an international conference organized by the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department of Zanjan province, the status of Iranian salt men and the existing problems on the way for preserving them will be discussed by Iranian, German, and British experts. Currently despite all efforts have been made so far for preserving these salt men, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Zanjan province is worry about the fate of these mummies.

Explaining that this international event will be organized in conjunction with the Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) during the coming September, Farhang Farokhi, head of ICHHTO Zanjan’s provincial department, told CHN: “Unfortunately despite all efforts have been made so far for preserving Iranian salt mummies in Zanjan’s Museum, they are not in a satisfactory situation. Evidence show that they have even being a bit eroded compare to the time they were unearthed.”

Farokhi further pointed that keeping Iranian salt mummies in vacuumed glass coffins which have been done currently is considered a short term alternative for preserving them and it can not last for a long time. Considering the importance of these unique salt mummies, brings into light the importance for finding the best approaches for preserving them for next generations.

Discovery of human beings mummies is one of the most attractive archeological findings all over the world. However, safekeeping them has turned into a matter of controversy for archeologists and no definite approach have been adopted yet for their best preservation.

Due to the existing problems in this regard, Iranian archeologists have decided to stop further excavations in Chehrabad salt mine and if any mummy is discovered accidentally during activities in the salt mine, it will be buried again until the new approaches for preserving them is found. That is just what happened about the sixth discovered salt man.

From 1993 to December 2005, a series of salt mummies were found in the Chehrabad salt mine near Zanjan in northwestern Iran which belong to Achaemenid (550-330 BC) and Sassanian (224-651 AD) dynastic eras. Details of some of them are somehow vague, although some of them have remained almost intact. According to the released reports, four salt mummies were found until November 2006. However, the discovery of two more mummies in 2006 and 2007 raised the number of Iranian salt mummies to 6.

Currently the first discovered mummy is being kept in Iran’s National Museum in Tehran. The next four ones are being kept in Zanjan’s historical laundry, which have been changed into Zanjan’s Anthropology Museum and the sixth one which was recently discovered accidentally during operations in Chehabad salt mine, has been buried again to be unearthed later.

chnpress.
Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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"Iran, Germany, and Britan to Decide on Fate of Salt Men" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Iran's "salt men" avoid danger of decay by coldrum on Saturday, 19 June 2010
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The ancient Iranian "salt men" have been saved from decomposition.

"The salt men are currently kept in special showcases under controlled conditions at the Zolfaqari Museum," the Zanjan Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department (ZCHTHD) director said in a press conference on Wednesday.

"Without hesitation, I can say that the salt men kept here are in better condition than the one at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran," Amir Elahi stated.

Three showcases, each at a cost of 250,000,000 rials (about $25,000), have been specially designed for the salt men, he explained.

The showcases have been equipped with devices, which enable experts to monitor conditions inside and keep them under full control, Elahi added.

All six salt men, known as Iranian mummies, were discovered at the Chehrabad Salt Mine in the Hamzehlu region near Zanjan over the past 13 years.

In February 2009, a number of Iranian media reported that four of the salt men kept at the Zolfaqari Museum, were in a critical condition due to loose plexiglass cases that had been designed for storing these mummies.

The media explained that the cases were not hermetically sealed and changes in air temperature and pressure had created cracks in them, allowing bacteria and insects to enter and do damage to the mummies.

Studies on the Fourth Salt Man indicate that the body is 2000 years old and that he was 15 or 16 years old at the time of his death.

It is still not clear when the other salt men lived, but archaeologists estimate that the First Salt Man, kept at the National Museum of Iran, lived about 1700 years ago and died sometime between the ages of 35 and 40.

The Sixth Salt Man was left in-situ due to the dearth of equipment in Iran necessary for its preservation.

http://www.payvand.com/news/10/jun/1101.html
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Mythical satyr may be preserved in salt by coldrum on Wednesday, 25 July 2007
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Unicorns, giants and fairies, the UFOs of antiquity, have yet to turn up in any archaeologist's overturned shovel. Aside from their frequent appearances on ancient frescoes, statuary and artwork, such fanciful creatures of mythology don't have a clear origin, although some have linked the mermaid to lonely sailors glimpsing dugongs (also known as sea cows) in the distance, and making a giant leap.
But a recent discovery in an Iranian salt mine, suggests one scholar, may shed light on the origins of a famous satyr of antiquity, one so well-known that it merited a visit from the emperor himself. The satyr was a goat-man in Greek legend who danced and frolicked, playing pipes and chasing nymphs all day, living in a woodsy version of the Playboy Mansion.

In June, a man's body, naturally mummified within an ancient salt mine, was found in the Chehr-Abad salt mine outside the Iranian city of Zanjan. Six such discoveries have been made since 1993, according to the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) foundation based in London. Past salt man finds go back as far as 540 BC, around the time of the ancient Achaemenid dynasty. Archaeologists treasure natural mummy discoveries, such as "Otzi" the ice-entombed man preserved in an Alpine glacier and uncovered in 1991, because preservation of soft tissues, even beards in the case of the salt men, allows for investigation with DNA analysis and other tools of forensics

Stanford University's Adrienne Mayor, a folklorist, specializes in analyzing how fossil discoveries in prehistory may have led to legends such as the Titans of Greek mythology (botched reconstructions of mammoth bones) or mystic water serpents in Native American legends (fossilized fish-tailed crocodiles preserved in desert rock deposits.)

As far back as the era of the great Roman emperor Constantine, who reigned from the year 312 to 337, cities had their own special attractions, Mayor explains. The early Christian writer, St. Jerome (the patron saint of librarians in the Roman Catholic Church who died in the year 420) recounted that Constantine made a special trip from Constantinople (today Istanbul) to Antioch, once a great city of his empire, to view an exhibit of a "satyr" that had been extremely well preserved in salt.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Mayor | Roman emperor | Constantine
In an earlier book, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, Mayor suggested that the "satyr" was likely a faked patched-together body of a man and goat. But now she thinks the recently discovered salt man might provide another explanation. "Obviously, satyrs are mythic creatures," Mayor says. But the head of the man preserved in salt since about 540-300 BC, "bears a striking resemblance to ancient Greek and Roman depictions of satyrs," she says, which are depicted with similar hair and beard, a snub nose and protruding jaw.

"I think it's very likely that an ancient discovery of a similarly preserved "salt man" in northwestern Iran is the basis for St. Jerome's account of the 'satyr' preserved in salt and examined by the Emperor Constantine and numerous other curious visitors in Antioch," Mayor concludes.

Expert opinions are mixed. Roman historian Andrew Merrills of England's University of Leicester, says in an email, "Overall, it sounds like a great big 'maybe' to me. Interesting story, fabulous idea, but I wouldn't want to build too much of an argument on it." But Tufts University archaeologist Bruce Hitchner calls the idea credible.

The 540 B.C. salt man from Iran most resembles an elderly satyr figure commonly seen in Greek art, called Silenus, says Mayor. Silenus was usually depicted with long golden hair, a beard, a bulging forehead, snub nose and an open mouth. Mayor suspects the early images of satyrs may have sprung from such discoveries, transformed into art (with the addition of a goat's body) in the stories of the travelers and traders of the ancient world.

"When I saw the picture of the salt man, I was just struck by how much like a satyr he looks," Mayors says. "Satyr plays were very popular in antiquity, so everyone knew what satyrs looked like. There's no reason to think people back then wouldn't have made the same connection."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-07-22-satyr-salt-man_N.htm
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